


Mine

by jenny_wren



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Female James T. Kirk, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 06:49:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4050340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenny_wren/pseuds/jenny_wren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kink meme fill for a song fic to Taylor Swift's Mine</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mine

Len heard the door creak open and Jamie’s soft footsteps as she walked into the room. He didn’t turn around but stayed where he was, staring out the window at the city lights in the night sky. You couldn’t see the river from their apartment but he could imagine it glinting in the darkness.

“Hey,” said Jamie quietly. She crossed the room and he felt her press against his back, the side of her face resting against the base of his neck, her arms sliding around his waist so her hands could clutch each other tightly.

After a long moment, she said,

“Do you remember we were sitting there by the water?”

Len didn’t say anything but he unfolded his arms and let them rest gently over hers. Jamie turned her head and placed a kiss just below the line of his hair.

“You were in college working part time waiting tables.”

Len reflexively clutched at his wife’s wrists when he thought of the too skinny, sharp-edged version of Jamie who’d crept into the dinner he waited in like a feral cat ready to hiss and spit and claw. He’d wanted to scoop her up and keep her safe, love her until the dark circles beneath her eyes faded.

“Both left our small towns, no looking back.”

Len huffed a silent laugh at the idea there was any similarity in their flights. He’d left in a whirl of adolescent heartbreak after Jocelyn dumped him, determined to put as much distance between them as he could manage. Jackson Mississippi was too close and in the end he pitched up in Michigan, of all places, for Medical School.

Jamie was running from a lonely upbringing that was one abandonment after another. Father to death, mother to Starfleet, brother to who knew where until only her bastard step-father remained. She’d had nothing more than her bike as she drifted across the states one step ahead of her shadows.

“I was a mess,” she admitted, and he could hear the self-deprecating humor in her voice.

He found his own voice, because he would not allow his Jamie, even if she wasn’t his Jamie any more, to disparage herself.

“No,” he growled, “no, you were not.” He tugged on her arms so he could pull her closer to him.

She laughed out loud, and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, “Oh Bones, I was such a mess, I was a disaster begging for a place to happen. I can still see it all.” 

Len couldn’t stand to think of it, couldn’t stand to let Jamie think of it. He turned in the circle of her arms so he could hold her properly. Unable to actually face her, he tucked her head down against his neck and kissed her hair.

“I can see you too.” She chuckled wetly, “You were _scrawny_ , Bones.”

“I was not,” he said automatically, although they both knew it was a lie.

“You were. All bones and big, big brown eyes.” Jamie sounded lost and wistful. “The most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.” 

Len shifted uncomfortably.

“You were. Dunno how I got so lucky. And when you smiled at me…” She shook her head. “I was going to do a runner on the bill, you know.”

He hadn’t known that, but it didn’t surprise him.

“But you brought me all this food, far more than I dared order, and told me it was on the house. Of course I knew what that meant, or thought I did. So I hung around until your shift was finished and waited for you to take me home. But you weren’t going to, not until you figured out I didn’t have anywhere to stay. Then you kidnapped me.”

“I did _not_ ,” he gasped, torn between outrage and reluctant laughter.

“You did. You grabbed my wrist and towed me along like I was Matt or Danny being stubborn.”

The mention of their sons made Len wonder who Jamie had left them with. He almost asked, but he didn’t feel like he had the right, and he didn’t want them here for this any more than Jamie did.

“You were going to let me have your bed too, until I wore you down and you let me take the couch.”

She’d threatened to leave, and desperate not to see her disappear into the cold night, he’d conceded. He hadn’t known then the secrets that kept her guarded and wary, all he’d known was that he couldn’t leave her to fight her secrets on her own.

“I know your roommates bitched you out like crazy but you didn’t say a word and just kept on letting me stay.”

His roommates had mostly been incredulous he wasn’t ‘fucking her bow-legged, I mean you’d probably need to fumigate her first because who knows where she’s been, but if she washed off some of the dirt, I’d screw her.’ Len broke Travis’ nose when he punched him, which shut them all up for a bit.

Jamie had apologized and promised, “I’ll be out of your hair soon. I just need to find a squat or flophouse with an asshole who wants to fuck me for a bit.”

“Jamie no! You can do so much better than that.”

“Nah, I’m too much of a fuck-up for a rich asshole to bother with.”

“That was not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Aw Bones is a romantic,” she sneered, “love and all that shit. I’m too careful for that.”

The word choice had struck him as odd, “Careful?”

“Sure, I’m not handing my heart over to get ripped to shreds. Let me clue you into something, love doesn’t last, that’s just the way the world works.”

“And I thought you were busy telling the whole world to shove off.”

“I always follow the rules when it’s important.”

He took her hand in his and tried to force all his love and concern through the fragile connection. “Jamie, when it’s really important, that’s the best time to break the rules.”

“Why Bones, you’re a little a rebel at heart.”

“When it’s important, yes.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Alright,” she said finally, “I’ll stay. You’ll get sick of me soon enough.”

She certainly went out of her way to try and make sure he got sick of her - she staggered back noisily drunk in the early morning, she walked around naked and dared him to make a move, she smashed half the kitchen crockery against the wall, she slurred obscenities down the phone when his parents called, she slept with all three of his roommates.

He might have given up and lost his temper, but he kept catching her quick sidelong glances at him as she checked to see if she’d finally found the thing that would make him drop her. They weren’t triumphant or gloating, just sad and frightened.

So Len set his teeth and dug in for the long haul. Matt and Danny didn’t get all their stubbornness from their mother.

It came to a head when she showed up at the hospital while he was on shift. Thanks to his roommates, everyone knew about the bloody, drunk, aggressive girl who threw up over him before running out. Len ignored his supervisor’s disapproving words as he wrenched off his ruined scrubs so he could take off after her.

She wasn’t really trying to get away and he caught up with her down by the river.

“Jamie. Wait,” he called after her.

She stopped and turned back, eyes glittering with defiance.

He eased his mad dash into a slow walk, scared he’d spook her even though the curl of her lip suggested she was looking for a fight.

“Hey Jamie girl, you okay?” He eyed the bloody gash across her cheek. “Let me get you cleaned up?” he begged.

“Stop being nice to me.” She shoved at him, Len refused to budge,

“Somebody needs to be.”

“So what, I’m a project? Your good deed for the year?”

“No,” because he was way past good deed status now and he was never going to be able to walk away. “You’re my Jamie. I want you to be happy. I love you.”

“Stop lying to me.” She shoved him again and Len let the motion carry him back until he was falling and slamming into the river with a loud angry splash.

He fought his way back up coughing and spluttering.

“Bones!” Jamie shrieked, “Bones? Oh my God, are you okay? Bones!”

He tried to get his breath back to shout a reassurance, inhaled more water and choked instead.

A second splash half-blinded him as Jamie threw herself in beside him.

“Bones,” she clutched frantically at him. “Bones are you alright? I’m so sorry.”

“I’m fine.” Attempting to lever them both out the river he was thwarted by Jamie’s desperate hold.

“I never meant… I didn’t want…” 

“I’m fine,” he insisted firmly. “Although I’d be better if I could get out of this blasted river.”

Rationality returned and her grip eased, together they hauled themselves out the water. Jamie patted at him, hands searching for injury.

“Are you okay? I am so, so sorry.”

“I’m fine, I promise.”

“I…” Abruptly Jamie burst into tears. Len wasn’t sure which of them was more shocked.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” he said inadequately

Jamie kept on crying and shaking.

Reaching out he carefully put his arm around her for the first time and drew her close. 

“Stop being nice to me you stupid, stupid man.”

“Be quiet, I can be nice to you if I want too.”

She struggled against his embrace but so feebly he knew she didn’t want to win so he just hauled her closer and let her sob into his shoulder. Eventually her tears faded and she knuckled her eyes.

“Fine,” she said, “you win.” He’d have felt better about it if she’d looked happier about it. Watching her pale face and red-rimmed eyes settle into resignation didn’t feel like much of a victory.

Jamie moved out three days later into two rooms above the garage where she had been picking up shifts as a mechanic. Len didn’t see her for a week.

It broke his heart. As much as he said he only wanted her to be happy, as much as that was actually true, he still wished she could be happy with him.

The next time he saw her, she was waiting by her bike as he left the hospital after his shift.

“Jamie,” he hurried over, thrilled to see her. He studied her, fiercely glad to see a slackening of her tightly wound tension and a new lightness in her eyes. “You’re looking good.”

“Thanks.” She folded her arms tightly across her chest. “So here’s the thing. I’ve got a job, I’ve got a place to live, hell I’ve even signed up for night classes.”

“Jamie, that’s wonderful.”

“So,” she interrupted loudly, “I’m on the straight and narrow path to being a good citizen. You don’t need to fuss anymore.”

“That wasn’t…” 

“So,” she glared at him until he fell silent, “that said, do you want to go for a drink sometime?” Then she swallowed hard, the click in throat betraying her anxiety.

Len stared at her entranced, “You, Jamie Kirk, are the bravest person I have ever met.”

“Yeah well, somehow in reforming me you turned me into a fucking rebel. And was that a yes?”

“Yes,” he had started to laugh, loving her more than ever, “yes that was a yes.”

 

“Yes,” said Len, he stroked his thumb against the soft skin of her inner wrist, “yes I remember.”

“And then we’re taking on the world together.”

Len’s smile twisted. They honestly had thought they could take on the world and win. They were such idiots.

The hospital threw a collective fit at the idea. When he took Jamie to a college mixer, he was actually called in by his academic supervisor for a ‘serious discussion’. Len pretty much ignored everything he said because he was fairly sure punching out his supervisor would not do his career any good at all.

His friends sneered, before getting all concerned when it became apparent he intended Jamie to be a permanent fixture. Len ignored them too. Dr Franklin, his clinical supervisor, who never so much as smiled and firmly ignored any sign of a person’s private life, actually laughed the first time she saw Jamie waiting for him.

“That the girlfriend?” She pointed at Jamie standing by her bike, hands shoved into her leather jacket pockets, short hair ruffled in the chill breeze.

“Yes,” snarled Len, defensive and angry.

“You know what you are McCoy? You’re the Southern Belle going out with the kid from the wrong side of the tracks.” And she laughed like a drain.

He had absolutely no idea what to say to that. Dr Franklin patted his shoulder,

“Good luck, you’re going to need it.”

Len glared after her. Dr Franklin didn’t understand. He hadn’t understood himself until he started to coax some of Jamie secrets out of her, usually in choppy little half sentences when he was on the verge of sleep. 

“Do you mind my hair?” she asked one night as they curled up together on the double mattress on her floor.

“Uh,” he struggled to wake up his brain because Jamie never chased compliments with leading questions, which meant it was even more of a loaded question than when Jocelyn used to ask him if he liked her dress.

“It used to be real long and pretty. I cut it when I was twelve, hacked it off with the kitchen scissors, damn lucky I didn’t chop off an ear while I was at it.”

“I think you look lovely just as you are.”

“Oh quit being so fucking diplomatic, Bones.”

“I do,” he said helplessly, although he’d like it if she grew it out a bit because it worried him that somebody else would see beneath the aggressive cut to the vulnerability it was supposed to be hiding. As it was, it gave him a little thrill to know he was the only one in on her secret, even if he had no idea why nobody else could see it.

“Umph,” she muttered and pretended to go to sleep.

Three days later, she continued as if there had been no break in the conversation.

“Started wearing Sam’s clothes after he left home too.”

Len nodded, slotting the information into place. It explained Jamie’s fondness for too large flannel shirts and baggy jeans. It made sense too, that a little girl missing her brother, the one stable person in her life from what Len could tell, would wear his clothing, but at the same time…

“Frank hated it, said I looked like an ugly rat.”

Oh, thought Len. Out loud he said, “Thought we’d established Frank was a drunken moron.”

“Yeah, okay.” 

She snuggled into his arms and Len waited until he was sure she was asleep before rolling on to his back to stare at the ceiling. He didn’t think she realized she’d been subconsciously making herself as unattractive as possible to her stepfather. 

In fact, from the way she talked she didn’t even consciously recognize her stepfather’s sexual interest in her. Frank was too firmly in the asexual category of mother’s husband and if he ever stepped outside that role, she was too certain he hated her - not realizing hate and sex weren’t always mutually exclusive. 

Jamie’d been planning to leave Iowa the summer after her sixteenth birthday when she graduated high school. Instead she ended up skipping out a year early because Frank was ‘getting all weird and intense’. 

She had abandoned her careful plans to run with a handful of credits and no choices at all. Len wondered if it made him a bad person that he had fantasies of driving out to Iowa and breaking all Frank’s teeth.

In fact, he smiled a little bitterly, the one good thing about the current situation was that with nothing left loose he could indulge himself. Soon as everything was finished here he was heading for Iowa.

Jamie was never going to make her parents’ mistakes. She’d never let a drunken asshole near her, or the kids.

“I love you so much,” he said hopelessly, because that was as true as it always had been and he wanted her to remember that if nothing else.

Jamie pulled back slightly and grinned lop-sidedly at him, “I kinda got that when you asked me to marry you. Why’d you do that anyway? I wasn’t going anywhere.”

He shook his head, it hadn’t been about tying her down at all, it had been about showing her off. He’d wanted the whole world to know that this amazing girl had agreed to be his, and let him be hers. And okay maybe it was a little bit about keeping hold of her, because it wasn’t like he didn’t know she could so much better.

She pouted, “You’ve figured out all my secrets, you could at least tell me yours.”

“Jamie,” he sighed. He’d told her the truth half-a-dozen times, she just refused to believe him.

“Fine, be all mysterious. It was good proposal though, would have been better if some idiot hadn’t wrecked the romance by demanding to know why you bought her a ring.”

Len laughed. They had been sitting snuggled up together on a bench by the river and, too nervous to actually speak, he had sheepishly shoved the ring in its little box towards her. She’d looked at it completely blankly.

“That’s a ring. Why have you bought me a ring?” she’d asked, completely perplexed.

Len still hadn’t been able to say anything, just blushed so hard he thought he’d spontaneously combust.

“Wait a minute,” she said, and he could see her brain working on the problem analyzing the concept of ring giving and comparing and contrasting examples of such behavior in films and books. Jamie hated taking risks when it was important.

“You want to marry me?” she asked dubiously, testing her hypothesis.

He nodded.

“Oh.”

That wasn’t exactly encouraging, Len held his breath and hoped Jamie would let herself be less than careful for a second time in her life.

Finally he felt her head nod against his arm and she hooked the ring out of its box to hold it tightly in her clenched fist. He stroked her knuckles gently until her hand relaxed and unfolded, then took the ring and slid it carefully onto her left ring finger. As soon as the ring slid home, her hand curled back up. 

It sent a sharp thrill through Len to his ring there on her finger. It was plain silver band carved with a repeating pattern of Celtic knotwork, partially for cost, partially because anything fancier and Jamie would have to remove it for work.

Jamie stared at the ring on her finger for a long moment, then tucked her hand protectively into the seam of their bodies. She turned her head into his shoulder and made the soft grumbly sound that was, depending on context, Jamie-speak for ‘I love you’ or ‘you are a fucking idiot’. 

The engagement ring moved from her left hand to her right when they married but Jamie was still wearing his ring. Len wasn’t sure why. It should be some sort of dig, a message that she wasn‘t the one at fault - but Jamie wasn‘t that sort of petty. 

“Do you remember?” she asked him seriously, as if there was a chance he might actually have forgotten.

Nobody had been happy about their engagement, which wouldn’t have been so bad but they couldn’t get married until Jamie turned eighteen - no way were they asking her parents for anything, not even permission - which meant everybody thought it was their duty to talk Len out of it before he ‘irretrievably ruined his life’.

That comment was courtesy of his great-aunt before she stopped contributing to his course fees leaving him scrambling to fund the difference. Between shifts at the hospital and extra shifts at the diner he barely saw Jamie for the month leading up to their one big fight.

“Do you remember?” asked Jamie again. “Stupid o’clock in the morning and we were fighting like the world was ending?” She laughed, it sounded harsh and false. “What were we fighting about anyway?”

Len shrugged his shoulders. The root causes were easy to identify: stress, too little sleep, too much time apart, insecurity, anxiety over money… But Jamie already knew all of that and would tell him to stop psychoanalyzing them if he listed them out loud. 

The actual spark that set off the gunpowder was lost in resulting explosion. He thought it might have been his delay in putting the ice-cream back in the freezer after dinner but that seemed ridiculous.

“Yeah,” she agreed, “I’m pretty sure it was something stupid.”

“It wasn’t stupid.”

She looked down at her hands. “No it wasn’t.” 

“Hey ssh.” He rubbed his hand against the tense knot between her shoulders. That night, hopped up on fear and grief badly-disguised as anger, Jamie had very nearly hit him. She’d managed to divert the punch that would have knocked him off his feet and instead put her fist through the cheap plasterboard wall.

“Ssh,” he said again, holding her tighter as he remembered her eyes staring at him, big and blue and horrified before she turned and fled.

He’d chased her out into the street. Jamie had been crying hysterically. Furious with herself and gasping out apologies, she tried to ward him off without actually touching him. Len had finally had to grab her arms to stop her backing away from him.

“I just knew it was over,” she was staring determinedly at the floor. “It had been a good run but that was it. There was only so much you could be expected to put up with.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat, his whole heart hurting for her. “Jamie…”

“And do you remember what you said?”

He placed his hand against her cheek, gently tilting her head so he could see her face, blue eyes luminous with unshed tears, “I said, I’ll never leave you alone. I fell in love with a careless man’s careful daughter and she is the best thing that has ever been mine.”

Her face trembled and he thought sickly that she was going to cry, but white teeth bit resolutely at her lower lip and she shook her head briskly.

“I don’t, I can’t,” she stumbled over her words, and finally gave up with a frustrated little growl. Then she was shoving at him and pulling his arms into the position she wanted. Len let her, Jamie always found action easier than words.

When he was arranged to her satisfaction, they stood close together, his arms around her waist, hers around his neck in the perfect pose for slow dancing. Jamie gave a happy little sigh and laid her head against his chest. Len began to rock them slowly to a half-remembered rhythm. Jamie followed his lead, pliant and trusting in his arms.

Things had got better after their fight. Len choked down his pride, accepted that until he’d completed his education Jamie was going to support him financially, and gave up his part time work. He also gave up the room he’d been keeping for appearances sake and officially moved into Jamie’s two room apartment. In return he got to see his fiancée for more than five minutes in passing. It was a good trade.

Even better, the next month Jamie took off ‘to organize some stuff’, promising to be back in three days. When she reappeared, exhausted and wired, she tossed an official PADD down on the table and said,

“Well?”

Len stared at it in disbelief, “How did you get..?” Grabbing it up, he inspected it more thoroughly and confirmed that it was permission from Frank Owen for his stepdaughter to marry Leonard McCoy. Then any other reaction was swamped by the knowledge that in order to get it, “You went to see Frank on your own?”

“Calm down, he didn’t know it was me. It was after six so he was already good and drunk, I dumped a load of beer off on the porch and asked him to sign and thumbprint for the delivery. He was too sloshed to know what he was signing, or recognize me under the ball cap and jacket. Uh, we probably better not tell people that part.”

“No, probably not.”

“So?” she demanded. Len glanced up, beneath her truculent expression was clear anxiety and he suddenly understood Jamie thought he would back out of marrying her now it was crunch time.

“Half term’s coming up. I’ll call my Mom and we’ll get something booked.”

Her smile was so beautiful, he had to close his eyes against its brilliance.

After that things had been as close to perfect as Len thought you could get outside of heaven. 

Until he ruined everything.

He could make excuses, of course. Blame it on his father getting sick, blame it on his father asking… and his own complicity in breaking every vow a son and doctor should hold sacred.

But his actions were his own, and nobody could take away his responsibility for them. And now he held his Jamie in his arms for the last time.

He closed his eyes against the wet sting of tears.

“Sometimes,” said Jamie dreamily, “I hate your father more than anyone else I’ve ever known.”

“What?” He blinked in surprise, attention completely diverted. “I though you liked Dad?”

“Sure I _liked_ him. But he fucked you over worse than any of my parental figures screwed me and claimed to love while he did it. So now, yeah, pretty much hate his guts.”

Len’s body froze as his mind whirled desperately. It was impossible. She couldn’t know.

“Of course I know. I’m not an idiot. I mean, I didn’t figure it out straight away, but - not an idiot. I know.”

He tried to yank away from her and the knowledge she carried. He had no idea how to deal with this. He needed to get clear, he needed time to think.

Jamie’s arms clamped down. She hooked her ankle around his, knocked him off balance and shoved him down onto the couch.

“Fuck, cool off. You’re about to stroke out.” She followed him down, pinning him in place. Len let her, too blank to try and resist.

“How can you stand to touch me? I mu -”

“You did not,” she snarled.

“I did, and less than a month later.”

“Shut up. It was already too late for your father. Sure they figured out how to stop the degeneration, but your father was three months in. It was too late.”

“It wasn’t,” he protested wildly, trying to buck her off him. Jamie just held on tighter.

“It was,” she said quietly and implacably. “I’m sorry, more sorry than I can say, but it was too late Bones.”

“I didn’t want him to die.” His voice had started to shake.

“I know.”

He hid his face in the curve of her neck. Her hands began to smooth up and down his back and she hummed softly. Slowly his shaking eased and he was able to speak again.

“I’m sorry,” he said raggedly, “I’m sorry for everything.”

“You had your reasons.”

“Not good enough.” Maybe he could justify ignoring Jamie and their sons for those three months he fought for a cure, but he’d been vicious in his need for time. He distinctly remembered ripping into Jamie when she’d asked him to take a break and celebrate Matt’s first day at school. There was no justification for that.

And once his daddy was dead -

“Stop yelling at yourself,” said Jamie, “you’re only human, Bones.”

“You should hate me, why don’t you hate me?”

“You’re only human. Like me. I don’t expect perfection, Bones, and I can’t offer it either.”

“You should expect more than a drunken asshole. You sure deserve more.”

“You weren’t around enough to be that much of asshole.”

It was the truth and it cut him to the bone. He hadn’t been around, he’d hid out from his family in any bar he could find, booking into roach motels when he was too drunk to get home. He‘d shown up at work hung-over, riding on his reputation at the hospital until he had no idea why they hadn’t kicked him to the curb.

Like he had no idea why Jamie hadn’t kicked him to the curb until now.

Abruptly he wanted a drink very badly. Jamie had ambushed him after a late night clinic, just shown up, looking small and fragile under the harsh hospital light. Len hadn’t been able to find the courage to go home and face his wife in over a week, but as soon as he saw her a strange peace had come over him and he’d followed her meekly to the car. He was too exhausted to keep fighting his need for her, just seeing her had done him in.

“I miss you so much,” he said ridiculously. 

Jamie laughed at him, as he deserved, “You sure have a funny way of showing it Bones. I want - ” she stopped and he saw her visibly brace herself.

This was it, he knew. This was when she asked for a divorce.

“I want Starfleet.”

“What?” He had to have heard wrong. “What?" he demanded again, too loud in his disbelief. Jamie winced and patted placatingly at his shoulders.

“I’m sorry, but just listen, please. I really think it will work.”

“Starfleet?” he checked.

She nodded, peeking nervously at him through her eyelashes.

“And you think this is good idea why?”

“You need, we need, a change, something different. You’re a brilliant doctor, they won’t be risking you to space. But Starfleet would give you a challenge and it would get you away from research, just for a bit,” she added hastily as if he had raised an objection, “just long enough for you to get some equilibrium back. And, I’m sorry Bones, but your drinking, I can’t control that.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” he mumbled.

She flashed him a quick grin, then frowned, “And apparently the hospital won’t. Starfleet will though. You have to stop Bones, because you’re starting to arrive at the hospital still drunk, and if you foul something up because you’re drunk, you really will never forgive yourself.”

“You think loosing you and Matt and Danny isn’t enough of an argument?”

“I, uh,” her eyes dropped, “I wasn’t sure.”

“Oh God, Jamie you’re the best argument. There isn’t… don’t you understand that without you I’m nothing.”

She licked her lips nervously, “I’m sorry, but I won’t, I can’t, let Matt and Danny grow up with a drunk.”

“I know, I’m glad.”

“So will you? Starfleet?” She petted his cheek timidly. “Please Bones.”

“Yes I will.” It was a good idea, complete change and a discipline he wasn’t getting as a star of the hospital. He’d like to say it wasn’t necessary but he’d promised himself he would stop lying.

“You really will?”

He nodded.

“Oh thank god,” she collapsed limply against him.

“And,” he took a deep breath, praying that he wasn’t misunderstanding, “I know I don’t deserve it, but this is a second chance, right? You’ll, you’ll come out to California sometimes to visit me?”

Jamie pulled away to stare at him. Something inside him curled up and died at the sheer disbelief on her face.

“Bones, don’t you get it? We’re coming out to California with you.”

“What?” It couldn’t possibly be that easy.

“I mean, only if you want us to. But quarters for married Cadets are quite spacious. And I thought… Don’t you want us?”

“Of course I want you. I thought you didn’t want me. Not after… You shouldn‘t even want to know me anymore.”

She smiled and swept her thumb tenderly across his lips, “Somebody once told me the best time to break the rules is when it’s important. And you, you made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter, you are the best thing that has ever been mine.”


End file.
